Physical identification

Physical identification is a concept that is central to Lecoq's work with mime and Neutral Mask. As I watch a bird flying, I feel I am surrounded by air; my arms are like wings. I soar. I become a bird. As I watch a cat washing, spontaneously my wrists begin to curl and my spine begins to arch. I become a cat.

Native Americans call it Shape Shifting. The hunter takes on the shape of the quarry in order to approach at close distance, or the magic of a fellow predator, perhaps a wolf, to increase his power. But it is the shape of the movement, not the shape of the body, that deceives the eye. A frog will starve if surrounded by motionless flies. His eye does not register the shape of a fly, only the movement of a fly.